JM: Hey Chris, thanks for the kind words! The reaction has been pretty amazing to be honest… we took a chance by releasing it ourselves and also giving it away freely on forruin.com but it’s paid off. The reviews have all been more than positive, some of them even overly so and that’s a great complaint to have, especially as the December reviews were somewhat mixed largely due to the production on that album for Sentinel. We took everything under our own wing this time and I think we’re doing ok!

CD: You took the decision to precede the album with the EP “Enlightened”. What was the thinking behind that, and how successful do you think that has been?

JM: The digital EP was something of a dry run to see how we would cope with managing a digital release ourselves in some ways and also to give people a taster of what was to come, to let them hear the strength of the material and the production and to hear how we’ve stepped it up this time around in terms of the quality of the songs and the production. It also serves as a taster in terms of the remix of Towards an End which originally featured on the debut- that album will be remixed sometime, just not anytime soon.

CD: For Ruin started as essentially a one man project into a fully fledged band. How did that process come about, and what kind of compromise have you had to make to ensure the band continues to improve?

JM: I was very keen to drop the one-man-band tag as quickly as I could because I wanted it to be a fully fledged, proper band, not just a studio thing. I know what I like in terms of sounds and styles and as the band’s line up evolved and improved to what it is today I think the song writing has come along with that as we perform together more and more and that’s an ongoing process, we are still a “young” band with plenty to learn and are under no illusions about that.

In terms of compromises – there hasn’t really been anything that I could complain about. I am very happy and lucky to have such a great bunch of musicians to play, write and rehearse with that it’s not a compromise in any way. It’s a bunch of friends playing a style of music we all love and enjoy writing and performing together.

CD: The cover artwork for Last Light is stunning. Who came up with the concept, and how many designs did you have to wade through until you came to this one?

JM: Paul McCarroll’s name was on the top of my list for the artwork – he’d done the last few Primordial albums and he’s got a great style and flair that I always admired. I’m not sure the guys in the band knew who he was or if he was the guy that did the Primordial stuff, but once I suggested him we all figured it’d be great if we could have some of his work on our album.

We wanted a simple, striking “iconic” piece that was instantly recognisable and would be associated with the band. I was also very keen on it being one colour on a single coloured background. The most recent Septic Flesh album influenced us in this regard I think. It also follows through into the merchandise nicely and is simple, to the point. Initially we had no real ideas, then Pete and I along with Paul started to bounce a few ideas around, we tried a couple of things but ultimately I suggested the fractured cross design – its inspired by a Christian brothers logo. The track “In Suffering” is based on some negative aspects of the church in Ireland over the decades.

CD: You were mentioned, I know, in the print version of Metal Hammer (UK) as the lead feature. Does it seem like the band are finally getting some recognition?

JM: Yeah that was a coup for us - we’re very happy with it, but it is just a review at the same time, even if it is in a major metal publication. We are pretty grounded and know that it’s just a step in the right direction. These things take time and hard work. The review will be followed up by a string of UK shows so that’ll be something to get more excited about!

CD: The “Irish” angle has been well covered by the music press (myself included). Do you feel the Irish tag to be a help, a hindrance or just a distraction to the For Ruin ideal?

JM: It’s a bit of both. “Do they sound like Primordial?” is what most reviewers think first I guess, and no, we don’t. We don’t sound like any other the other Irish bands – our influences are from the north and south of Europe for the most part. I guess the international audience sees Irish metal as an oddity, and many are curious – after all mainstream popular Irish music is world renowned and many people are aware of our culture and history and they are curious.

CD: What was playing in the background of Last Light? I hear a few Paradise Lost and Katatonia influences among the more ferocious metal. What do you think the influences on the album were?

JM: The influences now for me are the same as always, although I do listen to new music too, even more so lately than in recent years in fact, but mostly from the same acts I’ve listened to for years. Many would say that Paradise Lost and Katatonia were always evident in our sound, back through the demos, and I agree – I love those bands, more so PL these days than the recent Katatonia output though. I still listen to lots of technical and extreme metal, and my song writing is still in the majority on Last Light and I hope that changes on the next album as the guys are contributing more and more which is really great. Some of the bands’ whose new material I have listened to a lot in recent times would be Paradise Lost, Amorphis, Unanimated, Hypocrisy, Immortal… the usual suspects for me, along with Septic Flesh, Death, Rotting Christ, Dissection… and lots of other stuff.

CD: What next for For Ruin? Do you intend to maintain control over the releases, or are any labels sniffing around given the buzz the album is receiving?

JM: My guess is that it’s tough times for any band label hunting now. We have to promote this CD fully and have started writing some new stuff already for the next release, but that’s a while away yet. We may self release again, we may look for a label, we are undecided, but my guess would be that we would maybe do something in between, a licence of some sort where we still maintain the bulk of the rights and decisions about what happens to our music. A band in our position needs to be heard, to build a name – that’s why the album is freely available. We may continue to do that, we may not - we will see how that experiment works out in the longer term but so far so good it has to be said in those terms. Self release is great from many points of view but there is a distribution issue of course, and the costs of the promo are hard to bear but that’s a cost we have shouldered and have in fact just recently cleared out of sales so far so that’s pretty good going I think!

Next though is hopefully some UK shows with a few in Europe in the pipeline and hopefully a couple of festival appearances too, we’re working on that all the time. We have finished with the Irish gigs I think for now and our focus is now firmly further afield.

Post script – note that For Ruin have featured highly in my top ten of the year featured albums, coming soon to the site!

For more on the band check out http://www.forruin.com
http://www.myspace.com/forruinband

Interviewed by Chris Davison

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